Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy When is subject acceleration appropriate

Hi all,
I had a question regarding reading acceleration. My third child, dd7 is in first grade. She taught herself to read about age 3 and loves it! Her older two sibs are id'ed HG and probably MG. She has not had ability testing besides NNAT a few years ago to be admitted to a GT magnet for K. She scored enough to get in about 125 or so.

However, my concern is her reading. Her first grade teacher said she was only ALLOWED to test her to a DRA level of 30 but knows she can go higher. She is the highest reader in class. A 30 is about 3rd grade. The teacher is not a good fit and does the very bare minimum for the kids. I've asked to have her work differientated (which is a very common and standard practice at this school.) The teacher told me what she would do but even that isn't happening nor is it enough. During guided reading, my daughter is in the highest group but well beyond the group. The differeientation consists of AR tests when she'd like and allowing her to write more on her writing assignments......

Since this teacher isn't really going to give her what she needs I'm considering asking about subject acceleration. My daughter is reading 4th grade books with ease. I'm not sure if her reading level is much higher than that.

Is this a level where subject acceleration would help? Or, would she need to be higher yet on reading? My dd is even writing "this is too easy, I need something harder...." on her papers she turns into her teacher... She's a strong willed little gal! She loves to learn and loves teachers who "get her" and challenge her. This one does not. In fact, I'm planning to tell the principal that if my ds6 is placed in this classroom next year, I'll be homeschooling him....Just not a good fit for bright kids.

I personally would not subject accelerate for reading without commensurate writing skills (both penmanship and stamina). As you get into the higher grades, decoding is less important and written interpretation skills are more important.

Also, IME, reading skills for good readers tend to grow by more than a year at a time, so challenging placement at the beginning of the year won't be a good fit even a few months later.

First was a trial for my DD, too. They were really limited in what they were allowed to check out of the library or read in class. I sent DD with books from home, and that helped some.

Her math was good enough to do a full skip of second, and the third teachers were much more willing for the kids to advance through books at their own pace. Fourth is starting to chafe a bit, but DD kind of understands that the point of fourth grade reading is interpretation, not reading the hardest or most interesting books you can.

My son tested at a third or fourth grade level in reading as a kindergartener. His writing was better than kindergarten, but not yet really beginning of first grade. They moved him into the highest first grade reading group, which was still too low for him. His writing has picked up very quickly.

In math, he really needed to be placed with third graders to get challenged, but because of stamina, writing, and emotional development, we all decided not to accelerate right now, and the gifted specialist is working with him and a couple other kids in the kindergarten classroom.

We have a subject acceleration in math. Reading seems more difficult, and I agree that it would be helpful only if other pieces were in place, such as strong writing ability, etc. In my child's class I would say that there are a solid half dozen who are very well ahead of grade level reading--by several years. It really seems like reading levels are all over the place in the early years. Most of the kids just read their novels during reading time. Can you move up the ladder a bit in asking for differentiation?